The director of the Prado already warned this a few weeks ago, Miguel Falomir: The museum is betting heavily on sculpture and will continue to do so. It is more than a gallery. His sculpture collection, much less known than his pictorial collection but very relevant, consists of more than a thousand pieces. Little by little they are making room in their rooms. They have focused new installations in the North Patio and in the North Ionic Gallery of the Villanueva Building, in Room 58 B a set of 18 anonymous marble medallions is displayed; There have been important purchases (works by Berruguete, Juan de Mesa, Martínez Montañés), and they even star in important exhibitions, such as the most recent: ‘Shaking hands’, a metaphor for the coexistence between painting and sculpture in the museum.
Now, the five sculptures of the Leoni that looked in the Jerónimos Cloister have gone, permanently, to the place of honor of the Prado, its central gallery, along with paintings by Titianwhich also contributed to the dissemination of the image of the Royal Family. They have not been placed in the center of the gallery, but between the columns on the walls. With this, the museum wanted to give back to these five sculptures “their great symbolism in the context of the dynastic portrait of the Habsburgs, thus strengthening the Prado’s own exhibition discourse. The sculptures are now located in their natural environment, forming a space of high symbolic density.
They are the effigies of Isabella of Portugal, Mary of Hungary, Charles V and Philip II, made in the workshops of the famous Milanese sculptors. Leone (1509-1590) and Pompeo Leoni (c. 1533-1608)the most important and influential of their time at the service of the Spanish Court. Of Charles V There are two sculptures. One, in marble, made around 1553. In 1549, two years after the Battle of Mühlberg, the emperor commissioned Leone to make this portrait. He wears armor decorated with a representation of Mars, god of war; the Golden Fleece, the sash and the sword. The second, a bronze bust of Charles V (around 1555), resting on an eagle, as a heraldic symbol, flanked by two nudes. For its part, the sculpture of his son the King Philip IImade in bronze, signed and dated 1564, was commissioned by his aunt, Mary of Hungary, for the sculptural gallery of family portraits at Binche Palace, near Brussels. The Monarch carries the baton and the sword.
Image of the sculpture of Isabel of Portugal in the Central Gallery of the Prado
The sculpture of Queen Mary of Hungarysculpted in bronze by the Leoni, is signed and dated 1564. A prominent patron and sister of Charles V, she married King Louis II of Hungary in 1521, who died five years later. She was governor of the Netherlands. In this statue she appears dressed as a widow, with a cap and stole topped with crosses. He holds a missal. Finally, the Leoni carried out the sculpture of Empress Elizabeth (in bronze), signed and dated 1564. She played an important political role as governor of the kingdom during the prolonged absences of her husband, Emperor Charles. For the physiognomy of this posthumous image of the Empress Leone Leoni was inspired by a portrait by Titian. Isabel wears a luxurious court skirt, carefully crafted with a rich repertoire of grotesques. The final details were chiseled in Madrid by silversmiths Felipe Jusarte and Micael Méndez, supervised by Pompeo Leoni.
From the Prado they value the importance of the pieces: «It is one of the most iconic groups of the artistic scene of that time. The high technical and formal quality of various portraits of the family of Emperor Charles V is located in one of the highest stages of artistic excellence of what was being carried out in European sculpture in the 16th century. With a commemorative function, which sought to perpetuate lineage and fame through plastic representation, the sculptures represent a real boast not only in its compositional concept, derived from the consecrated Greco-Latin models, but in a careful finish, of extraordinary thoroughness, typical of a goldsmith’s work.
Image of the sculpture of Mary of Hungary in the Central Gallery of the Prado
Although the Prado ‘promotes’ them in category by installing them in its honored space, in reality the sculptures ‘descend’: they are located at a lower height how they were displayed in the cloister, on high pedestals, thus allowing the public to enjoy all the details.
The last extension of the Prado so far (in reality, the last will be the Hall of Kingdoms) was carried out by the architect Rafael Moneowho designed a new building and restored the Jerónimos Cloister, which was integrated into the museum. Protests from Jerónimos residents delayed the project and caused Moneo to modify its original proposal. For now, the Cloister will be without works of art, but it will not be for long. The Prado does not reveal which pieces will replace those of the Leoni.
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